Kristina Daniel Lawson is a partner in the Land, Environment and Natural Resources Division in the San Francisco office. Ms. Lawson’s broad advisory and advocacy practice focuses on all aspects of California land use and environmental law. From the interpretation and application of local General Plans, specific plans, zoning ordinances, and the Subdivision Map Act, to local land use initiatives and referenda, to state and federal natural resources, air, and water law, her wide-ranging expertise adds significant value to land use projects throughout the state. Ms. Lawson is a recognized expert in matters involving the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)

Ms. Lawson’s vast experience has included the representation of:

• White Wing Highland Associates, the owner of 1,580 acres in unincorporated Solano County where she served as lead counsel and successfully entitled the Rockville Trails Estates project in 2007. The project consisted of a 370-unit residential subdivision, with on-site water and wastewater facilities, a proposed fire substation and open space preservation. Following the project’s entitlement, she defended and settled a complex CEQA case challenging the project, facilitating the phased sale of a portion of the project site to the Solano Land Trust.

• A family with significant landholdings in Lafayette and Moraga, California, providing strategic advice and counsel when the client was faced with a potential downzoning of landholdings by a local initiative backed by the Sierra Club. Kristina drafted and qualified a counter initiative that successfully blocked the proposed downzoning.

• A multifamily residential developer in Walnut Creek, California, in developing a CEQA streamlining strategy that saved the developer significant time and expense.

• The owner of Depot Park (former Sacramento Army Depot) in Sacramento, California, in a lawsuit challenging the extension of a redevelopment area. The successful settlement of the lawsuit provides for substantial investment in the Depot Park project.

• The owner of Villa Del Lago commercial center in Patterson, California, in connection with entitlements secured from Stanislaus County and subsequent annexation to Patterson.

• A Fortune 50 high-tech company in a successful settlement of an enforcement action brought by the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District resulting from the operation of emergency standby generators following an unscheduled power outage.

Ms. Lawson regularly appears before state and local agencies throughout the Bay Area and California, and works with legislators, decision makers, thought leaders and organizations to help clients achieve their objectives. She has also served as special counsel in key litigation matters affecting statewide public policy, including matters involving California’s tidelands trust, the proposed high-speed rail project, and emergency water supply projects.